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Modern American pizza is a multi faceted global phenomenon. Over the last 100 years pizza has shown us that there are plenty of ways in which it can be sliced. It’s even been around long enough to have its own renaissance. Over the last decade, hand-crafted artisan pizza has finally created enough of a wave to have a ripple effect on the all-powerful pizza industry. Not that artisan pizza is going to supplant Pizza Hut any time soon, but the mere fact that it continues to grow and that it resonates with operators and consumers alike, is a sure sign that it is here to stay.
Hanging on by a thread…
A generation ago, the original methods as practiced by the old masters, were all but lost to modern commercial pizza. Fortunately, the old ways managed to survive—even if by a thread. At that time, the chains, which had become the role models of choice, had struck a deadly blow to independent pizzeria operators. Independents that chose to emulate the chains found that they couldn’t compete, and many were vanquished. Fortunately a good share of hardy operators dug their heels in and decided to fight back with quality and service and superior pizza.
Left Coast Cuisine
While the pizza industry had remained decidedly insular to outside culinary influences in the past, the Nouvelle American Cuisine revolution of the early 1980’s was too compelling to ignore. At the forefront of this movement was the California Cuisine faction which espoused an eclectic approach to mixing cuisines while utilizing fresh ingredients. Left Coast culinary icons, Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck chose to add pizza to their menus and helped to bring about the California Pizza trend which altered the face of American pizza forever.
Gourmet specialty pizza comes into its own
Traditional operators saw California pizza as a short-lived trend and hoped that its far-out style would blow over. While California style pizza did eventually dim, the “gourmet- specialty pizza” trade blossomed. Operators began to add all kinds of specialty pizzas to their menus. The trend took hold and brought about a wave of change throughout the industry. By the end of the 1980’s, fresh ingredients and imaginative pizza toppings were widely accepted as the new norm.
Bread bakers bring it on
Around the same time, a group of bread-bakers in the San Francisco/Berkeley area were focused on producing traditional hand-crafted French rustic style breads utilizing pure grains and natural yeast starters. By the end of the 1980’s, this trend became known as the artisan bread baking movement. A couple of years later, the movement spawned the Bread Bakers Guild of America and by the mid 1990’s, artisan bakers had become a formidable share of the baking industry. The appeal of artisan bread baking was not lost on pizza makers who were inspired to adapt some of the classic bread techniques to pizza crust. Artisan-inspired pizza makers began to focus on their crust and devoted less attention to developing topping-centric gourmet pizza.
VPN: Crusaders of authentic Napoletana
In 1989, the Italians took on the role of attempting to preserve the tradition and character of authentic pizza Napoletana and formed the VPN. (Vera Pizza Napoletana, means “true-authentic” Neapolitan pizza.) The VPN had strict rules regarding ingredients, formula, method, size, type of oven and even for the type of wood to be used. They even went as far as to declare that Neapolitan pizza could only be produced by utilizing very specific ingredients grown or produced from specific areas in and around Naples.
Taking it slow
And lastly, one cannot possibly leave out the Slow Food movement as another great influence on pizza. Slow Food was founded in Italy, by Carlo Petrini, back in 1986. Slow Food honors the traditions and methods of regional cuisines, artisanal products and the general quality of food and drink. They support the preservation of artisan and farmstead products and promote food and wine tastings and events.
The winds of change
The period from 1985 to 1991 was a hotbed of exciting influences on pizza; operators wanting to compete with the chains were making their pizzas with better quality ingredients, they were using more imaginative toppings and were interested in producing a better pizza crust. Suddenly operators were presented with some exciting options that were not the run-of-the-mill approach to pizza. They could go to Italy and learn the VPN techniques or travel to Los Angeles and take the courses there where they could become certified VPN pizzaiolos. Pizza makers, who were into the bread baking aspect of pizza, experimented with adapting those techniques to create signature artisan crusts. Chefs played with pizza as a culinary form in the same vein that Wolfgang Puck or Ed LaDou did in the past, but continued to push the pizza format envelope. The stage was set for pizza makers to raise their craft to an artisan level over the next decade. By the turn of the millennium, artisan pizza would firmly be in place.
What is Artisan?
The definition of an artisan is a skilled manual worker who practices a trade or handicraft.
How does this relate to pizza? In the broadest sense of the definition as it applies to artisan pizza: 1) The dough must be made with only pure and natural ingredients: no additives, conditioners, preservatives, artificial ingredients or artificial coloring are allowed; 2) The leavening of the dough must be achieved with natural yeasts (commercial strains or wild). The use of preferments are acceptable but not prerequisite; 3) Machine mixing of the dough is acceptable, but the dough must be hand formed and hand stretched to be qualified as artisan. No machines may be involved with the production of the dough beyond the mixer, which rules out dough rounders, sheeters and presses; 4) The ingredients utilized to make pizza toppings must be pure and natural and of the highest quality--and preferably minimally processed—if processed at all; 5) Artisan pizza makers support other local and national artisanal ingredient producers, growers and purveyors, and use organic and sustainable products whenever possible.
THE PLAYERS
In presenting this approach to pizza, I am in no way discrediting the number one segment in the industry, which is industrial pizza and semi-industrial pizza. The artisan movement represents a small but growing segment of the industry which needs to be addressed and given official recognition both from the pizza industry and from the professional culinary community. There are already a number of factions within the segment that qualify as artisan even though their philosophies and methods may vary. Here is an over-view of the various types of artisan pizza being practiced within the market today.
LA VERA PIZZA NAPOLETANA
Without a doubt, VPN is the most well-known, organized and vocal of all the artisan factions. In the mid 1980’s they realized that pizza was becoming a truly global phenomenon and that something needed to be done to preserve the true identity and tradition of the authentic pizza Napoletana, as it had been made in Naples for nearly 200 years. While there has been plenty of rumbling about attempting to disallow any one else from using the term pizza, or pizza Napoletana unless it was made by a certified Neapolitan pizzaiolo, the VPN hasn’t yet succeeded in achieving their goal. Currently, they seem more focused on gaining a DOP designation (dominion of production) on vera pizza Napoletana produced in Naples utilizing ingredients that come from certain surrounding local areas.
VPN is quite specific about how it is to be made, the formula calls for: Italian 00 flour, baker’s or cake yeast, sea salt and water: no substitutions are allowed. The pizza must be topped with either Mozzarella di Bufala or Fior di Latte, DOP San Marzano Tomatoes and fresh basil. The only acceptable oven is a specially designed Neapolitan wood-burning oven that sears the pizza in about 1.5 minutes at temperatures that hover between 900 and 1,000 degrees. Most view VPN as the only artisan pizza because it is the original version, but there are other equally viable artisan pizza factions, that – though not Italian – are equally estimable.
THE PURISTS
Purist artisan pizza makers are harder to pin down because they are mavericks who have developed their own signature styles. Some depart from the VPN mold, others look back to the old master formulas of Lombardi’s, Totonno’s, Patsy’s and Pepe’s, and then there are the eccentrics who’ve developed some very original interpretations that encompass some of the bread baking influences along with several other sources. What all pizza purists do share, is the unifying conviction that pizza is all about the crust. Most of their energies go into the formulation and handling of the crust. For them, flour is the ingredient they live and die by; they obsess over it constantly. Not that the other ingredients get over-looked, because the purist will also search out the perfect organic tomato, or will pull their own fresh pizza cheese. They will use the finest hand-made sausage and artisanal salumi as well as the freshest local produce.
Purists pizzas are usually quite reductive; the toppings are not piled on and the combinations lean towards simple yet traditional; but always well-crafted. Their prevailing philosophy is that no topping should detract from the starring role of the pizza crust.
Many purists incorporate artisan bread baking techniques into their pizza making methods, whether in the form of dough formulation, flour selection, use of preferments, sours or old dough. Some mix their dough by hand, while others respect the gentler mixing tradition learned from artisan bread bakers. Most artisan pizza dough goes under long slow fermentation that can go on for 24 hours upwards to four days or more. Needless to say, this type of product takes a lot of attention to detail. The pizzas are always hand formed and hand stretched. The preferred tool is a wood-fired oven, but any type of oven that will provide a needed hearth bake can be used.
Most purists operate pizzaiolo-owned and operated pizzerias, which means the owner is the one who controls all aspects of the dough and toppings, and is also the one who usually makes the pizzas. A pizzaiolo-owner is like the chef-owner of a restaurant.
THE TRADITIONALISTS
By far, the largest group within this segment is the traditionalists. This group includes most of the legendary pizzerias and pizza makers who practice the craft of traditional pizza. They are largely unfazed by the VPN, artisan bread baking or much of anything that has come along in the last decade or so because they’ve been making pizza the way they’ve always made it for the last 20-30 or 40 years. They don’t use fancy flour, but they do use great quality, they don’t experiment because—why should they? They are very comfortable in their craft.
Traditionalists use the best ingredients possible and still do things the old-fashioned way, which is largely by hand and with pure, natural ingredients. They don’t go in for the new-fangled specialty pizzas; you won’t find a speck of goat cheese or chunk of pineapple on their pies, but they sure have a way with pepperoni, sauce and cheese atop a heavenly crust. These guys don’t tend to take themselves too seriously, but they do take their pizza seriously: pizza making flows from their hands. A few still use ancient coal ovens but most use good old deck ovens. They might look at you funny if you were to refer to them as an artisan, but they do fall into the category.
PIZZA CHEF
In a similar vein to pastry chef, the role of the pizza chef has become increasingly high profile. As a trained culinarian, a pizza chef prefers to extract the essence of pizza and create innovative spin-offs. A chef focuses on pizza as a culinary form and tends to create versions that are largely a result of out-of-the-box thinking. Chef pizzas lean more towards pizza-like creations that don’t fall into the realm of traditional pizza. They experiment with specialty crusts and techniques like grilling pizzas, frying them or baking flatbreads with a tandori oven. Most chefs prefer to work in smaller appetizer size formats, like diminutive pizzettas and flatbreads ranging from four to eight inches. These creations usually feature crusts based upon exotic flours like chickpea, dosa, chestnut and buckwheat and utilize unusual and mostly non-traditional toppings based on eclectic cuisines and ingredients. Pizza chefs like playing with the pizza model because it is fun, profitable and very popular. Pizza-like creations have been popping up on restaurant menus for about 15 years now, so this eclectic approach is now firmly entrenched as a restaurant standard.
WHO BUYS ARTISAN PIZZAS?
Build the pizzeria and they will come (you hope). Artisan concepts have similar ideals: they are not mass market oriented, and they represent a personalized product made for a more specific market. This is why the demographic research for an artisan concept is so crucial. If the store is opened in an area that is largely chain oriented and price driven, chances are, they will not be willing to pay the price for a refined product—or one might think.
Despite the odds, artisan shops are popping up all over the place, where there’s nothing around to compare them to and they are striking a chord with consumers. Operators are marketing the tradition and the superiority of ingredients and of craft. They are positioning themselves in an area that the chains and much of the competition that emulates the chains, can’t match—yet!
If you are thinking of getting into this kind of operation, do your homework, learn your craft well and be especially diligent about researching the right location and right market for your version of artisan pizza. If you want to learn more about artisan pizza, be on the lookout for new columns on artisan pizza right here in PMQ. If you have any questions regarding artisan pizza, drop into the PMQ Think Tank and post a question or comment.